Air nozzles are employed in industry for a multitude of applications, including parts ejection, grit blow off, material transfer etc.
In a typical application, air nozzles placed adjacent to a stack of metal sheet direct a stream of high pressure air across the edges of the sheet to fan apart and separate the uppermost sheets in stack. In this way, individual sheets can be removed from the stack without the danger of accidentally removing several sheets due to the inherent tendency for stacked sheets to cling together. Since the air nozzles are only effective when they provide a pronounced thrust air pressures of 40 to 90 PSI are commonly employed.
While considerable attention has been given to nozzle design, most nozzles, even of the quiet type, have an open orifice of substantial cross sectional area so that a large volume of high pressure air is delivered by each nozzle. As the high velocity air jet impinges on and mixes with the relatively still ambient air, a turbulance is set up which produces objectionable noise. Further, the continued use of large volumes of high pressure air requires a substantial use of energy.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to provide an effective air nozzle system which generates a minimum level of sound in its operation.
It is further an object of this invention to provide a nozzle system which is effective at relatively low air pressures.
Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide a nozzle system which is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture.